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UK provides world-leading cyber security insight to EU delegates

The National Cyber Security Centre shares their assessment of the cyber threats facing Western democracies to delegates from EU Member States.

News article - 23 Oct 2017

Global experts from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will today share their assessment of the scale and severity of the cyber threats facing Western democracies to delegates from EU Member States attending a cyber security summit in London.

The summit follows a call from the Prime Minister, Theresa May, for EU Member States to work more closely together to combat the threat to our respective democratic institutions, financial systems, and public sectors.

At the Digital Leaders Summit in Tallinn last month, the Prime Minister offered to share UK expertise to help EU nations build up their own cyber security capability and resistance to attacks. She highlighted recent cyber attacks in the UK and Europe, and the danger this poses to our collective security.

The NCSC is hosting approximately 50 delegates from across the EU Member States, plus representatives from Iceland, EU Agencies and Institutions to share knowledge and understanding about countering cyber-enabled interference in the electoral process, and learn from each other's experiences in order to strengthen the collective response to a growing threat.

Ciaran Martin, NCSC Chief Executive Officer, said:

Our ongoing collaboration to tackle a common cyber threat will help protect our shared values of freedom, democracy, and prosperity.

Working together we can bring about real improvements to cyber security and we will continue to be an unconditional, reliable and effective partner in this domain.

NCSC's assessments of the overall threat to Western election processes and democratic institutions is just one part of today's discussion. The NCSC's operations cell will provide an overview of the strategies that might be used to mitigate the threat and measures to improve national resilience. Member States have also been invited to share their experiences, given the different electoral processes across the EU.

Sir Julian King, Commissioner responsible for security, will deliver the opening address at the summit.